


Stereotypical

by xuhei



Series: Jvedarah [3]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: F/M, coming of age idk, it's mostly soft and kinda like, read it you might like it, royal au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 22:13:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14246829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xuhei/pseuds/xuhei
Summary: You’re a coward, Kai. Can you not fight for your own honour? For your own family?Just as he got it from the people who knew him as Jongin, he got it from those who knew him as Kai. No one ever seemed to think that Kim Jongin could prove himself. He was said to be so stereotypical of a man in the Kim dynasty that it hurt him. He wanted to be nothing like his father.His father was lazy and did nothing for everyone. He didn’t fight in the wars that other people fought in and the army he commanded was one that he knew nothing about. Jongin, though he was sheltered from the world around him, wanted to fight for his country and it infuriated him that his very own people had the audacity to compare him to such a man.





	Stereotypical

“I have a gift for you, Jongin.”

Jongin isn’t impartial to gifts, lest they be from his mother who knew exactly what her son wanted. His eyes almost light up at the mention of the very word, one he now knows in the ancient tongue as _Zessan_ , due to his love for objects that are bestowed upon him by the people around him.

One gift he particular treasured was the sword from his good friend, King Sehun. The youngest king in the entirety of Daohrjin had grown up alongside Jongin and the pair had been able to establish a connection. It had been beneficial to Sehun’s father and Jongin’s mother, both the leaders of their countries and happy to see that the relationship between Areim and Neinrya would continue for a long time.

But the gift itself was like no other. Jongin was always interested in the most beautiful of things, so when he turned twenty and still was nowhere near to claiming the throne, King Sehun retrieved a sword that he knew Jongin would know. An exact copy of King Zhang’s, one that many would have wished to see in real life but would never, _ever_ get the chance to.

Jongin had believed his chances were slim, too. After all he was a human, and the elves of the south don’t fare well to the leadership of the bitter north that formed an alliance without including them. Yet here he stops, opposite to his mother with the very sword to his side if he ever needed it.

“A gift, mother?” Jongin repeats, smile gracing his lips as he takes a step forward. Queen Dana of Neinrya was such a kind monarch that many believed she should have taken King Yifan’s place. “What did you get for me?”

His mother signals to one of her court maids, sending the young girl with long, pure white hair to the chambers where Jongin usually slept. She takes her time on a return but when she does, there’s another figure following. One Jongin knows he hasn’t seen before but is strangely curious about.

A knight, if he may. The figure is clad in the newest of armours that could protect from anything. The same material that Zhang Yixing wore to battle and the same tunic that Jongin sported every day. The crest of Neinrya that many of his people believed he would never be able to carry.

Because, though Prince Jongin was smart and knew how to win anyone over, people doubted all of his abilities.

He had never been to battle, not like King Sehun and Prince Yixing.

Prince Jongin was one to watch from his palace and see others win for him. He could develop the best strategies and pick the best men but use a sword for his own protection was something that the boy had never had to do. Possibly because Queen Dana was to mollycoddle her only son, making him believe that the world would only give to him.

“There have been warnings from the south of a possible uprising. One of the watchmen had found people in the mountains, possibly a cult of Minyurta followers from Muucar. As you are permitted to travel at your own free-will, I’ve decided to gift to you a housecarl that will follow you and proceed with any task you wish.”

Jongin gives another once over to the person he now knows as _his_ housecarl, his breathing slow and eyes narrowed. He doesn’t know what he should say. “ _This_ is your gift?”

“I don’t think you understand the seriousness of this, my son,” Dana says. She stands from her throne and makes her way towards Jongin, stopping by her side and placing a hand on his shoulder. “Any of your allies could turn on you. A housecarl is someone that you will need to place trust in.”

“But I can defend myself, mother.”

“Jongin, you know that you’re lying to yourself if you think that you could protect yourself from an army of men that want to burn you alive and send your limbs to every state in Daohrjin. Are you really going to deny my help on the incentive that you believe _you_ can ward off every danger in the world?”

Jongin bites his tongue. He wants to tell his mother that he can defend himself but he knows in his own mind that _really_ , he wouldn’t offer as much protection as someone dressed in the finest jewels from the mountains _he_ owns. “I believe that you’re being too protective.”

“Would you like to challenge your housecarl then, Jongin?”

“Duel?” he questions. His eyes move from his mother to the figure again, drinking in the sight of something that makes his muscles tense. “Would you risk my life like that, mother?”

She only laughs in response. Her hand is removed from Jongin’s shoulder and she retreats back to her throne, only replying once she’s sat back down. “If you are as good as you believe you are, you won’t have a housecarl to serve you any longer. I suggest that you work your differences out and begin commanding like you will be doing in the future. I hear that King Sehun would like to pay another visit over soon.”

“Do you believe he would betray us?” Jongin asks.

“I believe we should be cautious, just in case.” Her response is cold and Jongin understands that his mother has learnt things from her time in charge. He recalls a time when she was close with the King of Neimza, a partnership broken due to the King’s greed. “If King Sehun finds something else that benefits him more than an alliance with us, we can do little more than surrender. So, I only believe that you should be cautious around your friend.”

Jongin wishes to argue that his friend wouldn’t betray him. Sehun knew how to mess around but he also knew that wars weren’t a good thing. However, he does recall on his last visit to Areim that Sehun’s people were benefitting more than anyone else ever would. For what reason?

King Sehun made deals that benefited his people, and only his people.

So, he knows that his mother could potentially be right. Not now, not in a few months, but sometime in the future when other people could give Sehun more than Neinrya could. When Sehun worked out that, although there was benefits to being allies, he was nowhere near as close to another state in terms of relationships as Jhusai and Syuvisa were.

“Let us go then,” Jongin states, calling upon the housecarl to follow him outside to a world filled with snow and diamonds. He doesn’t take a second glance at the one who is meant to be following him. Instead, he walks away and makes sure to hit his boots upon the floor extra loud so his mother knew he wasn’t happy.

♕♕♕♕

Jongin is sat outside of the palace that he decorated himself with the finest of jewels and clothes from across the country he would once rule. He wished to prove to his mother that, although he could not wield a sword, he knew how to do things that would show his blood was nothing but royal. So, the palace was entrusted to him and Prince Jongin had made sure everyone in Neinrya knew who where he stood.

After his father had died, many had questioned the Kim’s rule in Neinrya. Perhaps they believed that Jongin should have been in control of the state instead of his mother, but the queen had been insistent that Jongin couldn’t possibly have ruled a country aged twelve.

She was right, even if he wished that sometimes he was in charge of things around here. He could imagine siting on that throne and dictating to his people so he could run the land how he wanted. The very first thing he would do would be to make sure no one undermined him like they did know. He wasn’t a _child_ , he knew of war and of cruelty in the world.

He read all about how everyone hated the half-blood Prince Chanyeol and how his ally Prince Baekhyun would always defend him. He knew that Prince Luhan hated his father and he knew that Prince Zitao and Prince Yixing no longer wished to fight. He knew—very much so—that King Sehun’s father had something to do with the murder of his own. His mother only saw a little boy who cried when it thundered outside and—

“Hello, Prince Jongin. I am at your service.”

Jongin’s thoughts are clouded at the voice he hears behind him. A soft voice that shakes his bones and makes him question what he had come out here for the first place.

As he turns to face where the voice had projected from, he’s met with his _housecarl_. The one he didn’t want and the very reason he was out here. He had been trying to block from his memories—even if the events only took place a short while ago—his mother’s lousy gift of a person he didn’t need.

“Do you have a name?” Jongin asks.

His surprised to see you shake your head in response to his question; he’s surprised see that you’re still as stone. Despite the armour you wear he can tell you’re not born with the natural gifts of a fighter, and that the sword you carry is one manufactured somewhere in the south of Daohrjin due to its reflective colour. “I do not have a name. Queen Dana has instructed you to give me one.”

“I’m to give you a name?” Jongin questions, raising an eyebrow as he meets the place where he _should_ see your eyes. The armour you wear means he cannot look into your eyes, he cannot establish any trust with you as of yet. “If you say. I shall call you… Zessan.”

“Zessan… Gift?”

Jongin’s eyebrow is once again raised. “You know how to speak Rahinyo?”

You don’t give him an answer, instead falling to your feet, bending a knee and bowing your head to him. “Forgive me, Prince Jongin. I am not meant to converse. Is there anything you wish for me to do?”

Your words play on his mind for a moment. His mother has instructed you not to speak to him despite the fact he thinks your voice is lulling. He would listen to you read one of his favourite books if he gave you the chance to. He likes your voice. It’s comforting to a lost soul like his own.

“As you are under my rule now, you are to listen to everything I say. Understand?” Jongin says, taking another step towards you so that he’s standing directly above you. He looks down at you with slightly narrowed eyes and questions what else his mother could have told you to do. “What did Queen Dana restrict you from doing around me?”

You look up to him but he only wishes to see your eyes. He can easily tell though that you are under the strict control that only his mother could give. “Prince Jongin, I think—”

“Did I ask what you thought about the situation?”

“My apologies, Prince Jongin.”

“Are you going to tell me what rules my mother has told you to follow whilst at my side?”

You nod. It’s one that Jongin knows you’re reluctant to do. He understands that you fear what the queen can put you up to if you disobey her, but he won’t let you take any punishment for an act he asked you to commit. “Queen Dana has told me to do what you wish for me to do only. I may not speak with you, nor to you, converse with anyone around you, I must not see you inside your chambers, I must follow you at all times. I am to respond to a name you have given me and remain anonymous to you at all times.”

Jongin hums, looking back to the doors you had just followed him out of. He takes a deep breath, one that fills his body with energy as he smirks directly at you. His mother wishes for no personal connection between the two of you. Oh, _how convenient._ His mother has never liked the thought of her son being close to anyone who could take her son away.

“So, you cannot show me your face?” Jongin asks, resting his hand on his sword’s handle.

“No, Prince Jongin.”

“I want you to forget all the rules that my mother has told you. They are completely irrelevant to you right now.” Jongin pulls you up to your feet by the forearm and taps at the chin of the helmet you’re wearing. “Remove this. If you keep it on, I feel as though we have no personal connection.”

You nod once, though it’s hesitant. Jongin knows you want to protest because his mother had other things to say about what kind of relationship the two of you should be having, but he’s thankful that after a moment you place your hands on the cold metal and begin to peel it from the rest of your sheltered body.

And Prince Jongin has seen many beautiful things in his time, but none have ever left his eyes so wide like you.

The rarest of jewels and the clearest of diamonds he could find were no match for you. He doesn’t know why every second he looks at you the beating of his heart becomes a little quicker. He doesn’t understand what attraction he has to you.

He does know the reason his mother wanted you to remain anonymous to him, though.

♕♕♕♕

“Zessan, I need you,” Prince Jongin calls, voice loud through the wooden walls of the stable he’s sitting in.

It’s been three days since he was given you as a gift and so far, he has found many uses for you. The very first job included walking with him around town so people knew he had a fighter on his side to be feared. He assumed that anyone who was spying on him would now see that it would be hard to start a war against him.

However, he now believed it was time to take you away from the jobs he first decided were worthy of your presence. It had so far been a mixture of cleaning his things, and picking out jewels from his collection for him to have made into jewellery for his people. Even if that was not what you were good at, you were sworn to follow each of Jongin’s commands and had to do them.

He watched you each time you would curse him—in the ancient eleven tongue he knew was your primary language now—for the jobs he made you do, armour taken off and true body shown. Prince Jongin was surprised to see how well you took to cleaning, especially of his room that ended up looking better than when a maid was sent in to do the same job.

The prince was very quick to notice your appearance too. He already had taken in that you were no less beautiful that every past queen from Daohrjin, even if your beauty itself was not relative to Neinrya. There was no bleach white hair and skin that was white as snow like that of the people who lived and worked in the snow.

“Yes, Prince Jongin?”

Jongin looks up to you with a smile that disappears when he meets your eyes. He finds himself taken aback by the casual look you have today, with the black and silver armour traded for normal clothes. “You aren’t prepared to fight for me today, Zessan?”

“My apologies for the confusion but this _is_ armour, Prince Jongin,” you tell him. You reach for his hand, but Jongin pulls it away before you can touch him. He instead crosses his arms over his chest and waits for you to finish without having him touch you. “It’s light armour. One that I have kept for years. I find it to be more efficient.”

“Can I test it, then?” Jongin asks you.

Your face pulls into a frown as you think through his words. He knows you can see his sword that’s always attached to him, and as you had cleaned it yesterday you must know its power. Prince Jongin enjoys your helpless look when it dawns on you that he wishes to fight you.

“Is that a yes?” Jongin questions, standing as he brings a hand to your shoulder. He feels the material and hums, following the suit down your arm so he can get a feel for your spiked gauntlets too. “I haven’t had a chance to see how good you are at your job yet, so I think now would be an appropriate time.”

Jongin already knows you’re going to win. He’s known that very fact since he first saw you. He was not stupid enough to overestimate his skill compared to your own and fight a losing battle without prior warning. Prince Jongin was, however, curious to see how reluctant you were to fight him.

“I won’t hurt you, Prince Jongin,” you tell him, taking a step back from him and placing your hands down by your side to ignore any temptations from Jongin.

“You don’t have to. I just want to test your skill. How do I know you’ll protect me from King Yifan’s assassins if you won’t even prove that you can ward me off?”

You bite your tongue and Jongin smirks. His hand immediately reaches for the handle of his sword and he draws it, catching your attention for the briefest of seconds. He takes the opportunity as his own and decides that if he was _ever_ going to make a hit, it would be now.

So, he swings for you, but you’re much quicker.

In fact, Jongin is left speechless for a moment as you hold of his sword that was meant to hit you on the torso, just below your ribs. He knows it was a perfect aim because he would have slain any other man with a shot like that but you stopped him. You’d drawn your own sword and held him off before he could even touch you.

It only leaves him wanting to cut your armour even more. He scoffs, throwing you a smirk as he swings his sword over his head and tries to hit you on the same place, just the other side of your chest. Again, you beat him to it. You stop his sword before it can make any contact and you leave his blood boiling for another moment.

All that Jongin can do is wait. He stops to see what kind of shot you will throw at him but he never gets any. You’re frozen in place, and instead of trying to make any attempts at pushing him away you just stare at him with the fiercest of eyes. He’s drawn to you like no other.

“I won’t hurt you, Prince Jongin,” you repeat, pushing his sword away from you and taking advantage of his love-struck eyes and brain-dead mind. “You may question how good I am at this, but please remember that I will not hurt you and I will not fight you. I only protect you.”

Jongin feels his arms go numb as he drops them and lets his stance go. His breathing—though uneven—is deep and he knows that he could try to fight you again. He wants to, in his heart. He really wants to fight with you and see what you can give but your words. They stop him.

“Do you think I whine too much, Zessan?” he asks you.

“ _Whine_?” you question, frowning, “I’m sorry but, I don’t know what you mean by that, Prince Jongin.”

He sighs, looking down to his feet as he takes a step back from you. When he looks back up to you he pushes his hair over his forehead and takes a moment just to look at you. His gaze runs over the scars he can see on your face and your neck, as well as your fingers that still grip the sword at his defence. “You need to stop apologising to me. Apologies are meaningless in a world like this.”

Prince Jongin is slightly annoyed that you don’t answer him again, more specifically with another apology that will end with him being able to joke with you again. Jongin supposes he is lonely. He hasn’t had many friends and he doesn’t speak with many people. The maids are afraid to converse and so are the soldiers. His mother has probably given them the same command as you.

“Meet me tomorrow morning at dawn outside my room. I’m going to take you somewhere,” Jongin says. He smiles again and prays to Zenahya that maybe you’ll smile back to him one day. He thinks you may have a beautiful smile. “You’re dismissed for the rest of today. Rest well and make sure that tomorrow you are wearing something less… protective. You need to fit it more with the people around you.”

♕♕♕♕

Jongin is surprised to see your shadow outside his door when he gets up to wash his face in the morning. He had made sure to get up before dawn so that he could make a joke about you being late, but there you were already waiting for him. Surprisingly, it brings a smile to his face and he can’t help but think about you as he splashes the cold water over his face and tames his hair a little. He doesn’t do it _just_ so he looks good for you, but so that the public he will be facing today won’t look at him as though he is anything less than a nobleman.

He decides that, although he doesn’t want you to think that he’s being nice you, he won’t keep you waiting outside of his room for long. There could be a maid who has started her jobs early or even a solider that was meant to spy on him who could report back to his mother and get you both into some trouble.

He also chooses a dark outfit that allures to that of the thieves in Neinrya, opting to look mysterious next to you. He thinks that you both could give off a good impression together and maybe, _just maybe_ , Prince Jongin will be able to look down upon the commoners that don’t give Kai a chance in the real world.

“You’re here,” Jongin states, not sparing you a glance as he walks from the room. He focuses on adjusting his sleeve instead of properly attending to you, but notices the matching black dress that you’re wearing, woven from a material he knew wasn’t manufactured here in Neinrya. “Well, aren’t we a match? Both in black and both with a cowl. Are you afraid that people will see your face, too?”

You frown at his words, obviously not knowing the Prince well enough to understand what he was actually going on about. He notices your discontent but doesn’t say anything, opting to reach for the stringed necklace that he can see around your neck. Your immediate reaction is to pull away from him but Jongin is too quick, he manages to grab it and see the pendant you kept on the end.

It’s a blue stone, one he hasn’t seen mined from the mountains in Neinrya. It intrigues him as he shines it in the light and fully observes it. “Where’s this from?”

“My mother,” you answer him honestly.

“Your mother?” His repetition comes at the confusion in his mind from how such a piece could come into the hands of someone like you. “Where is your mother from?”

You don’t, however, answer him this time. You leave him with a blank stare as your teeth bite into your bottom lip and your breathing becomes a little heavy. Jongin realises that you must be hiding something; you’d answer him if you were an open book.

“You don’t want to tell me?” Jongin questions, cocking his head to the side as he drops the gem from his fingers. Though he keeps an eye of the colour changes of it, and how flawless it looks against your skin and accompanied by your _equally_ flawless face, Jongin takes a step back. “That’s okay. We’re all allowed our own secrets. How about you tell me where your mother’s from if I manage to win a fight with someone today?”

You look up to him with wide eyes. “You’re going to fight someone? Prince Jongin, I don’t think you should be doing that. You could get yourself hurt.”

“ _Prince Jongin_ won’t be fighting anyone,” Jongin tells you, smile wide as his cheeks flush a pinkish colour. “Come with me and I’ll show you what I mean. I think you’ll enjoy yourself with me today.”

“But where are we going, Prince Jongin?”

Jongin licks his bottom lip as he begins to grin. He eyes the door before moving back to you and reaching for your hand. “You’ll find out soon enough. Please stop calling me Prince though, address me as Kai instead. I don’t want people to know who I am. It will be our secret, okay?”

♕♕♕♕

Besides the fact that you’re so calm, Jongin is thankful that he’s brought you due to the presence you give off. He notices how the people the two of you walk past look up to you and whisper because you do look like the darkest of necromancers that had far too many tricks up their sleeves for others to deal with.

But Jongin isn’t worried, because he knows you can protect yourself around here. He’d be worried if he brought you as someone who couldn’t use a sword or fight for themselves because they wouldn’t last, but after yesterday he knows that you can fight against any one of the people here.

“Why are we here, Kai?” you ask, trying your best to catch up to him as he walks in front of you. Though Jongin notices you, he doesn’t try to slow his speed so you can catch up to him. “Did you hear what I said?”

“We’re here because I wanted to bring you.”

Jongin’s words are plain, but you hum and continue following at his side. He knows where he’s going; he’s been there a million times before. He takes pride in his steps despite knowing what everyone believes about him.

_You’re a coward, Kai. Can you not fight for your own honour? For your own family?_

Just as he got it from the people who knew him as Jongin, he got it from those who knew him as Kai. No one ever seemed to think that Kim Jongin could prove himself. He was said to be so stereotypical of a man in the Kim dynasty that it hurt him. He wanted to be nothing like his father.

His father was lazy and did nothing for everyone. He didn’t fight in the wars that other people fought in and the army he commanded was one that he knew nothing about. Jongin, though he was sheltered from the world around him, wanted to fight for his country and it infuriated him that his very own people had the audacity to compare him to such a man.

“Good evening, Kai.”

Jongin watches you as you turn to another man dressed in the whitest of silks, choosing to follow your judgement with this man. He knows who the man is, but you do not. It’s clear that you are concerned for Jongin’s safety when you draw your sword and hold it in front of Jongin, just so the man cannot come nearer.

“What’s this?” he says, eyeing you carefully but turning back to Jongin afterwards. “You’ve brought someone with you so we can’t hurt you again?”

Jongin hums. He uses the palm of his hand to push down your sword so he can approach the man. “I’m here to show my _friend_ around.”

“Friend?” he questions, raising an eyebrow as his attention returns to you. Jongin watches again as the man brings his fingertips to your shoulder and touches the edge of your cowl. You remain still, but your narrowed eyes are weary of any actions he could make. “Very well. See you around, Kai.”

Jongin has brought you here so that he can see how you respond to things. A sword swung at his chest or an arrow fired at his back, he wants to see what you do in response. Well, the actual truth behind his actions is that he wants to show off to you and show you what kind of person he really is.

It had been his idea ever since he met you. His assumption was that Queen Dana had made him out to be a coward, just like everyone thought he was. A prince who couldn’t— _wouldn’t_ —fight for his country and needed someone to watch over him. He felt a compelling need to prove this wrong, however. He wanted you to look at him and see more than a frightened boy in the body of a twenty-three year old.

“This is where I come often, to get away from things at the palace,” Jongin tells you. He’s led you to a street where there are men and women trading things without paying any attention to the two of you. “I’m anonymous here. No one knows what family I come from, not they would care. It’s nice to not have people asking me about music and dance, as well as other materialistic things.”

“But I thought that you were interested in dance, as well as music?”

Jongin raises an eyebrow at you, cocking his head to the side. “What makes you think that?”

“Well, where I come from…” You stop for a moment, looking up to Jongin with an anxious look in your eyes. Jongin nods, hoping for you to continue.  After a harsh swallow, you do exactly that. “As a child I heard stories of you. They said that you were talented in everything apart from the duties of a king. That you would dance like a fully trained maiden and you’d collected music from every place in the land.”

“ _Talented in everything apart from the duties of a king_. Do you believe that is true?” Jongin asks you.

He takes note of the way you bite down on your bottom lip as you look down to the ground, afraid to give him a proper answer. You do look up to him after a moment though, lips pursed. “I don’t know you well enough to give an answer that’s complete in judgement, but I can say that you are commanding and you can, at the very least, draw a sword. From what I hear that is more than your father could do, so I would find it pointless to compare you to the old King like many others seem to do.”

“Why don’t you address him as my father?”

“Because I don’t believe he’s worthy to be known as Prince Jongin’s father,” you answer him, offering another smile as you relax your stance, “you can make yourself out to be much more than the late King was, if you try to win people over and show them the person who you really are.”

Jongin nods once. He looks down to the ground but then immediately back at you when a thought hits him. “Will you help me to do that, then?”

“Help you?” you repeat. Jongin nods again and smiles back, pushing some of his hair over his head so you can see his whole face. “I can give you as much guidance as I can, but I can’t change the opinions of others for you. If you wish to change things, you need to remind the public that you’re more than just a prince who makes friends. King Sehun is popular because he works for his people and only his people. Same with King Yifan. You need to make a choice on whether you want to have allies or whether you want to have a prospering country. But I know nothing about running countries, I’m merely your housecarl.”

♕♕♕♕

Jongin finds himself sitting alone of the balcony that looks off into the town that stands beneath the palace. He often sits here alone when he needs to think about things, and that’s exactly what he needs to do now.

He’s thinking of making himself a monarch that can stand above people with a voice that everyone will listen to. He’s not sure if he should be considering whether having Sehun as an ally is a good or bad thing. Honestly, Jongin is caught in a flurry of thoughts which are making him regret the path he’s chosen in life.

“Prince Jongin, can I sit with you?”

Jongin is, however, distracted by your voice that brings him out of his thoughts and back to the real world that he was meant to be living in. He looks back to you, his gaze being caught on your face that looks softer than usual. You seem to be less protective of him now that the sun is starting to sit. “Of course. I’m not doing anything exciting though. You may think siting with me is rather boring.”

“Personally, I don’t think you’re that boring,” you tell Jongin. Taking a seat next to him on the stone, you lay your weapons out in front of you and pull your gloves from your hands, placing them between your shins. “Maybe when you take me to meetings where I have to listen to old men give Queen Dana advice on what to do with her own country, but when I’m alone with you, I don’t feel bored. You’re interesting, Prince Jongin.”

Apart from King Sehun, Jongin hasn’t had many friends. His bonds with Prince Kyungsoo and Prince Luhan weren’t as friendly as they were with Sehun so he didn’t speak with them as though they were his _friends_. He found it strange having someone who wasn’t paid to enjoy his company. Saying that, he wasn’t sure if the queen was paying you to begin with.

“Did you have any friends where you came from?” Jongin asks you.

He frowns when you shake your head. “Not really. No one would ever want to speak with me that often. I spent most of my time training for something like this, at my parents’ command of course. I always wanted to be a horse trainer, not a housecarl.”

“So your parents wanted you to be my housecarl the whole time?” Jongin questions. He may be naïve in some aspects but he’s certainly not with this. “If I was my mother, I’d be question their intent. Especially since you won’t tell me where they’re from. Are you here to kill me, Zessan?”

“I don’t have a motive to kill you, if that’s what you’re asking me. If I did, you’d already be dead.”

Jongin refrains from answering. Instead he looks back to the town before him and sighs. He knows you’re watching him. “If you don’t want to kill me, can we be friends then?”

“Friends?” you question, raising your eyebrows at him. You shift your body so you’re completely facing Jongin and place a hand on his shoulder, one you swiftly remove when he looks down to it. “I mean, why would you want to be friends with me? I’m not special in any way. I can’t help you win wars or anything.”

“Friends don’t have to win wars for each other. I mean, could you be my friend for the sake of talking with one another? Having someone to rely on when you’re feeling down?”

You hum, nodding slowly at his suggestion. “If you were feeling sad, you could have told me anyway.”

“But that means you have to tell me your problems too, you know.”

Prince Jongin is quite happy to have a friend, even if he feels stupid for having his heart race over something so mediocre. He hears that King Sehun has a friend that he tells things to all the time, someone he cherishes with all of his heart. He remembers Sehun telling him the last time he was here, suggesting that Jongin do that same thing.

Come to think of it, that wasn’t a friend. It was Sehun’s girlfriend. Jongin should really know the difference but he’s never had anything of the sorts before. He supposes that a girlfriend is someone that is closer than a friend. Someone that he loves like a member of his family, but far more intense. Does he kiss his girlfriend? Probably.

But Prince Jongin has never kissed any one before. He’s seen people kiss and he’s imagined kissing people before but he’s never done it. He wants to, and surprisingly he wants to kiss you.

“My parents are from Muucar,” you tell Jongin, distracting him from his thoughts, “they travelled here after I was born and trained my in the mountains to work for someone important. They were never happy with me though, so I left them to work for you. All the talk of a Prince who needed guidance made me want to help you and make you King. A better King than your father who killed many of my family.”

“My father killed your family?” Jongin asks.

“The cults your watchmen find in the mountains aren’t always Minyurta worshippers. Some of us are peaceful. Were peaceful that is. Not all of us want to hurt you, not all of us want to see you dead. But then your father decided it was best to kill some of us and… It’s not my place to say, Prince Jongin. Many blame you for it too, but you were a child when it happened and so was I.”

He watches you carefully, his eyes a little strained at your admission to what actually happened with the family you didn’t want to mention. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry, it wasn’t something you did.”

“I mean it though, I’m sorry,” Jongin repeats. He tries to smile but it ends up falling when he notices that you’re not changing emotionless. You’re so still. He even feels the urge to embrace you but pushes it away. “On behalf of my family I apologise for what we did to the rest of your family. I know that it doesn’t make up for what happened but… it’s all I can do for now. If you want me to send money or men to help your family…”

You shake your head, resting your hand back onto Jongin’s arm to stop him. “I never said my family where any better than yours. They don’t deserve an apology from you, they’ve done much worse things.”

“Is that why you’re here, then?” Jongin asks.

“Let’s just say, if I had to compare your family and my own, your one fares better. I would rather protect you than protect any one they would rather call King. If they ever manage to get to you, that is.”

♕♕♕♕

"How are you today, Prince Jongin?"

He was eating, but when he hears your voice Jongin has completely forgotten the soup in front of him and he's turned his attention to you. He smiles, rubbing his hands on his eyes to try and bring himself around from the sleep that had pulled him down so far today. "I'm okay, and you?"

"I'm okay, thank you," you answer as you approach him. You stop to the side of his bed and let your eyes move across his body that's completely covered by blankets. "However I have to call your bluff, Prince Jongin. You look sick."

Jongin had felt unwell last night and woken up in the middle of the night with sweat all over him as he shook because of how cold he was. He didn't particularly want to wake you, knowing that if you heard him call for someone you'd wake up too, so he walked all the way down to the kitchen and asked the maid who was preparing breakfast to make him some tea so he could feel a little better. 

He didn't actually know what happened after that, though. He woke up in bed with a doctor by his side telling him that he had to stay in bed all day. This put a knock in his plans for today, because he really wanted to take you down to the lake that was about twenty minutes by foot and was great to sit by and watch the wildlife. That—of course—was why he never woke you up last night. He wanted you to be well rested for today. 

"I'm okay, I promise," Jongin tells you, ignoring the bowl of suit and trying to stop the sneeze he can feel at the back of his nose. 

He doesn't manage to stop it though. He sneezes rather loudly and has to hold tray across his lap so that the soup doesn't spill anywhere. You can't help but laugh and it makes Jongin pout, not too much though. "And I'm a dragon. Stop lying to me Prince Jongin, I know you're sick."

"How about you stop calling me Prince and I'll admit that I'm sick, huh?"

"But you are the prince. I can't not call you by your title," you counter. 

Jongin sighs and drops his spoon, crossing his arms over his chest. "Okay, fine. I'm sick, the doctor thinks I have a slight fever but it will be gone by tomorrow. But we're friends, so you should call me by my name and not my title, right?"

"I suppose," you answer softly. Though you look down from Jongin he still admires how you're so shy around him. "Could you at least call me by my real name then?"

Jongin hadn't even considered that. He's forgotten all about your life outside of him and to be honest, whenever he though if you he thought of a goddess who roamed the world that was hers for taking. He'd given you a name at the instruction of his mother and that meant that his mind completely blanked because he's always known you as Zessan. 

"You don't have to, Prince Jongin," you rush to say, eyes wide at his lack of response, "I was just suggesting but it's not a problem if you don't."

Jongin doesn't want you to feel so nervous around him. He's not sure how to change that as of yet. "What's your real name?"

"(y/n)."

"Then I'll call you (y/n)," Jongin says. He loves the way your name falls off his tongue and graces his lips in the most wonderful way. His heart starts to beat a little quick and he tries to push his hair back over his head before he continues. "It's a nice name. I should have called you that from the start, shouldn't I? Now I feel bad."

You shake your head at his words. "Don't feel bad. You didn't know me then, I was someone who worked for you effectively."

Jongin doesn't really know what to say to you. He can apologise again but he knows it won't get anywhere with you, so instead he watches you carefully. He revels in the way you look back at him and catch his eyes in such a way, but what's even better is the way his lips are still tingling. At the mention of your name, or at the thought of kissing you. 

He's thought about that over and over now. He'll never get you closer than this again, nor will he get you alone. He's lucky to have you alone now. You shouldn't be in here but he's still imagining what it would be like to have his lips over yours. It's going to ruin him eventually but he'd be over stepping the boundary if he was to kiss you now. 

"You can sit," Jongin says, gesturing to the side of his bed, "I'm not going to be leaving for a while, so you might as well sit with me for now."

Though you seem to be hesitant, you do sit where he says to. Right on the space next to him on the bed, so you're merely centimetres from him. He’s watching over your face silently and he notices how every time you catch his eyes, you look away. He can’t pick up on what emotion you’re showing and that annoys him to the bone.

“Your soup is going to get cold, Jongin.”

“My soup?” Jongin repeats. He won’t admit that he was caught off guard by you so instead acts like he didn’t hear you because his mind was elsewhere. “My soup isn’t a problem. King Sehun is going to visit soon.”

“Well if you leave your soup to get cold then you’ll never get better, and King Sehun will have to see you. What happens if you make the King of Areim sick?”

Jongin shrugs. “I guess that he’ll be mad at me for a little while. Nothing too serious because he’s a friend of mine. If you made me sick do you think I would send you to prison or something?”

“Have your soup, Jongin,” you tell him, “or maybe Sehun will send you to prison and I’ll never get to see you again.”

“Would you be mad if you never got to see me again, then?” Jongin asks you. His eyes are shining and he thinks that, for the very first time in his life, that he will open up to you.

He sees himself like one of those dolls that Prince Baekhyun possessed. A doll with many others inside, and the more you know him, the smaller doll of him you get and the closer to his soul you touch. He’d let you see the smallest, weakest doll if you let him. He finds himself trusting you, even if you’ve not really proved much to him.

So when you nod, making him wish he’d have just kissed you already so he could show you how weak you really made him, Jongin’s heart almost stops. “I’d do what I can so that I could see you again, if I ever let anyone take you away from me.”

♕♕♕♕

“Prince Jongin,” you call through his door that you’ve been standing outside of for the past few hours, waiting for Jongin to come outside and forget the sour mood he was in, “King Sehun is here. The Queen wishes for you to come downstairs.”

Jongin didn’t want to leave his rom because his emotions were all over the place. He fears that if he sees you again he may do something that he’ll regret in the times to come, but a bigger regret will come from not following the queen’s orders. So, he tries to sort out his hair and fix the shirt he’s wearing so it looks less tattered.

“Thank you for telling me,” Jongin states as he walks out the door.

He doesn’t turn to you, he doesn’t instruct you on whether or not you should follow him. For the moment, he doesn’t care what you do because if he starts to care then you’ll be on his mind and he’ll regret his actions that can drive you away. Sehun is here and that’s what he needs to focus on.

And King Sehun is _very much_ here indeed.

As Jongin approaches the stairs he can hear his mother speaking with Sehun, the pair engrossed in a conversation about the current state of affairs in Muucar, including the supposed war between the Huang and Zhang families. In his own mind, he knows that Sehun is the son his mother always wanted but he ignores the feeling and walks down to meet them regardless.

“Jongin?” Sehun calls, turning his attention to the Prince as a smile brightens onto his face. “My, my. You’ve gotten taller haven’t you? Have things been good for you since I’ve become King, Jongin?”

Jongin forces a laugh as he holds his hands behind his back and bows his head to Sehun. The King has always been taller than him, his shoulders broader too. Sehun is very masculine and when Jongin was younger he found himself jealous of the attention Sehun drew to himself with his attractive face and equally attractive body. “Things are always good for me, Sehun. I don’t have the troubles of being a King, do I?”

“Of course not. Shall we catch up outside? I’ve missed the gardens here in Neinrya. There’s far too much snow in Areim for me to enjoy nature.”

They end up speaking with one another for what seems like years. Sehun tells Jongin about how much he hates having to speak with all the ministers in other countries, how he hates the south of Daohrjin— _especially that one in Xocya, he’s obsessed with me Jongin—_ and the amount of detest he has for King Yifan who is still trying to force all of the monarchs to submit to him.

All that Jongin really takes is that Sehun, wholeheartedly, hates his _job_ more than anything else in the world.

Either way, it gives him a distraction from the reoccurring thought that’s _you_. He doesn’t have to consider what you’re doing because he has to spend much more time thinking about the best way to answer Sehun. He does find himself looking back for you and checking to see if you’re still following, still _watching_ him, as they make their way back to the palace doors to discuss less personal issues. Not that Jongin got to bring you up, anyway.

“I have an idea, Jongin.” Sehun stops Jongin on the steps, holding out his hand so that Jongin can’t pass him. “I’ve always been curious as to the skills of the fighters here in Neinrya. I’ve brought one of my best guards with me. How about mine against yours, to see which one of ours is better? It’s like how we used to fight as children, right?”

Jongin has to stifle a laugh, swallowing hard at Sehun’s words. “Right.”

“Who’s the fighter that you’ll pick to try and best me, then?” Sehun asks.

Jongin refrains from twisting around to see if you’re still following. He has an overwhelming gut feeling that you’re still behind him, and though he wants to tell you to run away he knows he can’t. You’re going to be following him because that’s your job and he knows, he _feels_ in his _bones_ , that you’re going to be the one who steps up to Sehun’s challenge.

It’s not that he doesn’t trust you. He would let you fight for him, but he knows that Sehun is brutal and that he would do anything to win a challenge that he would set. He was far too competitive to go into a challenge thinking that he might lose, so you would be lucky to even stand any chance against this _prized fighter_ of Sehun’s.

“I’ll have to find one,” Jongin says. He delays Sehun’s actions by pulling his younger’s arm to get him to come inside. “One of the soldiers will be able to take on your men and—”

“I will fight for you, Prince Jongin.”

He curses under his breath, your words filling his ears and making his bones shake from the very thought of having you put in danger because of him. Sehun doesn’t care though, the King turns to you with a smirk on his face that could only mean trouble. “Who are you?”

“ _Zessan_ , King Sehun,” you answer. Your voice boasts fake confidence that makes Jongin’s blood run thin. He swallows hard again, turning back to you with the harshest look he can give. Really, he looks like one of the puppies that were in the streets who lost their owners. “I am Prince Jongin’s best fighter. I will fight for him against your fighter.”

Sehun hums, smile on his face as he turns back to Jongin. If they were still children, Jongin would have punched Sehun for this. He knows that Sehun doesn’t mean to put someone that Jongin _likes_ in danger but he’s still hurt. He feels like… if you get hurt then so will he. Any pain you feel will reflect on him and he doesn’t like that. _Oh_ , it hurts so much to see your usually calm posture break at the first sign of danger.

“Very well then. May the best fighter win.”

♕♕♕♕

“You know that you’re going to be _killed_ , right?”

Jongin waits for you to turn back to him, but you continue to pull on the boots you’d retrieved from a box under your bed. He’d followed you in here in the hopes he can get you to change your mind about this _thing_. He doesn’t want you to fight in his honour, nor does he want to chance anything happening to you.

Which is why you’re starting to irritate him, since you won’t answer him and tell him you won’t risk your life for him.

“Listen to me!” he exclaims, taking a few steps towards you but stopping when you turn back to him. Your eyes are fierce and it makes his blood run cold. “I know Sehun, he won’t come into a challenge like this without being prepared. He wants to prove he’s better than me and I can’t risk you like that. I _won’t_ risk you like that.”

“It’s not a risk if I’m going to _win_ , Prince Jongin.”

“But that’s not gaurenteed. If I doubted Sehun’s power I wouldn’t care but I know you’re unlikely to win against one of his mercenaries. He’s cold, he won’t back down from a challenge that’s given to him because he’ll do anything to win. What if you die? What will I do then?”

You only frown at his words. Jongin picks up on the hurt in your expression but he focuses on how your lip quivers ever so slightly. “You’ll find someone else who can take my place. That’s what people do when their housecarls die. That’s all I am, Prince Jongin. Your housecarl.”

“You’re more than that to me!”

Jongin is tempted by his own thoughts of what it would be like if the two of you were closer. As he imagines what brutality you could face at Sehun’s mercy, he’s met with the dreams he has of being able to continue his friendship with you and wait for it to become more.

And maybe he’d never be able to kiss you, or hold you, or _anything_ like that.

“Please don’t do it,” Jongin says, taking a step closer to you and placing his hand on your shoulder. He looks you straight in the eyes, his heart beating so quickly as he waits for you to show some kind of response. “I’ll find someone else who will fight for me. I don’t want anything to happen to you because… you’re not just a housecarl to me. Or someone to guard me, you’re so much more than that! You’re the first _real_ friend I’ve had and I don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t lose me, Prince Jongin,” you tell him softly.

He doesn’t believe you, but he’s so lost in your eyes that the words merely run through his head without making an impact. He wants to tell you everything, about how he feels when he thinks about you and the emotions that are running through his body right now.

But he doesn’t, and that’s because he isn’t able to stop himself from moving forward, placing a hand on your cheek and pressing his lips to your own in the very way he’d been craving for a while now.

For his first kiss, he gets more than he thought. His heart is racing so quickly that he can hear it beating in his ears, thumping across his body. It isn’t as loud as gasp that leaves your lips when he kisses you, nor is it as powerful as the coursing of _love_ —he guesses it’s that, anyway—through his veins.

He really didn’t imagine that your lips would be _that_ soft. Nor did he think he’d feel your hand on the back of his neck, moving into his hair so you could tug at the roots as you deepened the kiss more. Jongin’s more disappointed in himself for having to pull away, since he could feel himself losing his breath.

“Stop calling me Prince,” he says, lips ghosting over you own as he stands before you with his eyes barely open. He brings his thumb to your bottom lip and runs it across the slightly reddened skin that he must have been harsh on. “I’m Jongin to you, and all I want is for you to be okay. I don’t want to have to lose you, please.”

Really, he wants to say more about the reason he just kissed you. It’s not _just_ so you don’t fight for him, it’s not a plea for you to step down; it’s how he really feels. He wanted to kiss you for a while now, and now that he’s done it. Oh, he wants to do all the time. He wants to kiss you until his lips are numb and he can barely speak because of you. That’s what he wants—not a lifetime of grieving your dead body.

“I won’t lose, Jongin,” you tell him, hand on his forearm as you bow slightly, “trust me, that’s all I ask of you.”

Jongin nods. He won’t tell you that he’s not convinced because he wants you to have more confidence and he _needs_ you to come out of there alive. “When you win, I want to kiss you again.”

“You can. You can kiss me as many times as you like, Jongin. I want you to kiss me again.”

He’s blind to the fact you’re still nervous. If he was concentrating on more than your lips and your eyes that sparkled around him, he’d have noticed that there was a bigger problem that he was yet to be aware of. Jongin should have realised that Sehun, though dangerous, wasn’t the only threat. You’d told him before, after all. He should have been listening more carefully to your history and the things you had to tell him.

♕♕♕♕

Jongin sits on the chair beside Sehun, anxiously looking over to his friend to try and catch any signs that he was going to call _this_ off. He hasn’t seen you since you left him in the hallway and told him to trust you and think positive, not that he was really trying to do that. Sehun looked too confident and the man he wanted you to fight looked trained beyond what Jongin could ever prepare you for.

He has a body that’s bigger than any one Jongin has seen and armour that’s heavy to protect him from most blows. Jongin has already caught onto the fact that you’re going to be a lot quicker than Sehun’s fighter, but he’s not sure that’s going to be enough. He’s protected from most external blows that could bring him down.

Jongin is struck into even more silence when you walk from one of the tunnels into the small arena. When his great grandparents still ruled the land, they’d have prisoners fight for their freedom in this arena, or even for the sheer purpose of entertainment. The last thing that Jongin wants is to have your name buried alongside the nobodies that fought here and died.

His heart is pounding, head spinning. You approach Sehun’s own and bow when you’re a metre and a half away from _it_. Jongin can’t even call the beast human, he can only look on in fear for your safety that was in no way guaranteed for anyone. Sehun may be someone he calls an ally but this act wasn’t one of friendship. What Jongin needed to do was trust you but your words were meaning less to him with each breath he took.

He’s so close to stopping the fight, to telling the King there was a problem and sending him home. The words are on the tip of his tongue, but Sehun beats him to the cause. “What are the two of you waiting for? Fight for your countries and prove who is the best, won’t you?”

Both you and the beast bow your heads. Now or never for Jongin.

The worst thing—in his eyes—is that he feels so helpless beside you. He can only watch as you struggle to hold back against the sheer power of this man and how hard he swings his sword. Jongin can’t help but grasp onto the sides of the chair he’s sat in as the blade narrowly misses you a number of times and ends up in the sand that covers the entire floor.

Jongin is right; you’re quick. Far too quick for the beast to catch you and strike you. Each time he tries to swing in your direction you can move to another place and avoid any attack. The beast has far less stamina than you do, but his acts are so slow that his energy drains much slower than your own.

“She’s good,” Sehun says, turning to Jongin. Though Jongin doesn’t bother looking back, still absorbed in what’s going on before him, he notes the sour tone in Sehun’s voice. He thinks that Sehun, for the first time today, is worried about what may come of the events that are occurring. “I am curious to know where someone like that is trained in Neinrya. I thought you were best at your mining.”

Jongin bites his tongue. _I thought Areim was best for their fraudulence?_ Oh how he _wishes_ that he could say something like that and anger the King. It would be _amazing_. “Want to bring your men here to train, King Sehun?”

“Let’s wait and see who wins, first. Don’t count your chickens before your eggs hatch or you’ll have incorrect predictions.”

You’re not taking any kind of shot at the beast. You just block, avoid and dodge everything he throws at you, leaving the beast spinning in circles trying to find you. Jongin hasn’t been to war before but he can see how the man is getting more disoriented, his actions sloppy as you try to bring him down.

The beast has a greatsword and you have a mere _sword_. You’re not going to be able to try and attack unless he’s down on the ground with no one else to pick him up.

Jongin waits. He’s patient for you, and though he’s grasping at the chair he’s sat on with his entire body stiff in anticipation for what you can do, he’s getting some faith. He can see how the man is out of breath, trying to stay still for as long as possible so his mind isn’t clouded in judgement.

But wars aren’t won by trying to avoid your enemy. Jongin hears your pained cry when your ankle is left with one long cut across it. He hears Sehun laugh, mostly at his own fear that he may lose, but he can see that you’re not going to let that bring you down. You can take more than that, and it seemed that you needed Sehun to think he was winning to be able to win for yourself.

If Jongin would have blinked, he would have missed it. You narrowly avoid another strike from the beast and roll to your left, your quick actions meaning you’re able to hit the beast in the side and push him over. His misused balance means that he falls to the ground, greatsword away from his body and his limbs heavy. You keep your foot on his back and place your own sword on the back of his neck, right where you could push through the armour and kill him without another thought.

“Am I supposed to kill him?” you ask Sehun, turning to the king as you press down on the beast’s body so he can’t get to you. “Or just draw blood to know that Prince Jongin has won your challenge?”

Jongin looks to Sehun with raised brows. The King is emotionless and his finger taps on his knee in a rushed fashion as he thinks through what he can say to you. Whilst Jongin doesn’t want you to kill the beast, he wants to know this will be laid to rest.

“Jongin wins,” Sehun states. He says no other words, standing up and walking away from the arena and, more specifically, from Jongin and _you._ Jongin knows Sehun is annoyed, but he can’t help but smile when you look up to him and bow your head in his honour.

♕♕♕♕

 “I told you I would win,” you say, approaching Jongin from behind with a smile. You place a hand on his shoulder and he turns back to you with the softest of looks on his face. “You have nothing to worry about when I’m around.”

Jongin hums. “I was still worried for your safety, don’t think I would have just ignored the fact you almost died.”

“But I didn’t die, did I?” you question.

Overall, Jongin still feels his heart racing and he can see Sehun approaching, the King not particularly happy with what occurred because he _lost._ Jongin takes a step in front of you so make sure that Sehun would have to go through him first – he feels the need to protect you from him, as harmless as Sehun may be.

“Prince Jongin, and your fighter Zessan,” Sehun announces, stopping a few feet from the pair of you. He bows his head and scuffs one of his feet across the floor, then turns back to you with pursed lips and narrowed eyes. “Congratulations. Maybe I will have to train my fighters here in Neinrya.”

Jongin nods, but doesn’t do much else. He doesn’t know what to do when Sehun is like this, because Sehun isn’t often defeated. “Areim will always have one of the most powerful armies, you know that.”

“But I don’t have _her_.”

Sehun’s words make Jongin surprisingly jealous. He doesn’t like the way that Sehun is implying that he wants to make you his, nor does he like that Sehun is eying you like a prized pound of meat he’ll cook for dinner. Jongin and you are friends, you’re not going to Areim with Sehun and that is a fact. Even if Jongin has to fight for you this time.

Despite the fact he wishes to say something to Sehun, Jongin is stopped by you pulling on his arm. He turns to you immediately, raising an eyebrow as he looks to you for what you wish to tell him. He should have been able to tell by the look on your face that there was a _big_ problem.

“Would any of your army come down here in the day?” you ask him.

Jongin’s mind is flooded with things he’s heard at the meetings between his mother and the other people that are important to Neinrya. He immediately shakes his head. “No. These hallways are mostly unused.”

“We need to go,” you say, not wasting any time on pulling Jongin’s arm so he’ll follow you, “there’s someone down here with us, the two of you need to go.”

Sehun doesn’t quite hear what you say, but he isn’t reluctant to follow when you try to pull him with you. Jongin doesn’t know what you’ve heard or seen but he trusts your judgement as follows you, looking over his shoulder every few seconds to make sure no one is following. Sehun is between the two of you, trying to ask you what’s wrong but eventually you turn around and tell him to be quiet.

For the first time in his entire life, Sehun does what he’s told to do. Jongin’s never heard the King say so little.

“Stay here,” you tell Jongin—and Sehun, but it’s mostly at Jongin—as you push him into the corner of the room. It’s one that Jongin vaguely recognises as the old room where the prisoners used to get changed, but he’s not sure because the last time that he came down here was when he was only around ten years old. “Don’t move. I’m going to check if everything is—”

“Okay? Things most definitely are _not_ okay, my dear.”

You, Sehun and Jongin all look across the room to meet the eyes of a woman. Jongin doesn’t recognise her, nor does he recognise the men that stand behind her and to her side, but he can tell by the way you become so stiff that you most certainly do.

She’s southern and she’s most definitely an elf. Her ears give her away before anything else and so those the jewellery she’s wearing – it’s exactly that of one of the cultists that live in the mountains of Neinrya. Jongin fears that you may know them and that Sehun will be a witness to it all.

“You’re protecting Prince Jongin and King Sehun?” the lady asks, taking a step forward.

Your response is to draw your sword and hold it towards them. There’s not an ounce of nervousness that can be seen on your body, Jongin can see how calm you are as you face them. He thinks you may have done this before. “I’m sworn to do so.”

“And you’d kill your own family to protect them, would you?” she asks this time, standing still but eyeing the blade you possess. “You’re made to be one of the Kims then, aren’t you? You’ll kill us all in good time and won’t regret a second of it.”

Jongin wants to say something but Sehun’s hand on his arm stops him. Instead he waits for you to answer – he doesn’t want to antagonise things anyway. “Why are you here?”

“To send a warning. We’re here to tell Prince Jongin that he and the rest of the royal family should be weary with their actions. We’re ready to attack at any time, please bear that in mind. Don’t worry we won’t be hurting anyone today… but please know that we pose a _real_ threat to you, Kim Jongin. You too, Oh Sehun. We can take down two countries if we really wanted to.”

“You wouldn’t get away with that, you’ll be dead within minutes of trying to attack Neinrya.”

“We can try,” one of the men says, “just you watch.”

Jongin’s never been threatened before. He’s been protected from the real world so that no one could ever try and threaten him but he wishes now that he’d have known what was to come with the world that exists around him. It would have given him more insight to the fact that your family leaving him…

It meant you were leaving too.

♕♕♕♕

Though his head hurts and he feels like his world is falling apart, Jongin manages to drag himself downstairs to witness his mother’s meeting with the army general and the rest of the important figures in Neinrya at the time. He figures that if he is going to be King one day, he should probably listen into this conversation. His mother didn’t sound happy this morning so he knew it could be nothing good.

But instead of showing his face in the main hall, watching his mother sit on the throne he wanted to claim as his own, he sits on the steps leading down to it. He doesn’t want to show his face, to be honest. He hasn’t shaved in a few days now and he knows his eyes look tired and rather blue. He’s in no condition to show himself as the prized, beautiful Prince of Neinrya today.

“As you know, the cultists of the south had decided to force their way into parts of Neinrya that we have previously forbidden,” his mother starts, her feet clicking across the ground as she walks away from her throne, “they have made direct threats against the throne, specifically to the Prince and to King Sehun or Areim, which we cannot stand for.”

Jongin only pictures the lady who was so bitter towards you. The man who told you that _you_ were a traitor for supporting the royal family. All the words you had said to him before made so much more sense now and it hurt that he never figured it out before.

“They are calling for us to agree to certain terms so that they’ll back down,” one of the men in the council declares.

“We’re not agreeing to anything that those _people_ want us to agree to,” another says, “they wish to show we are weak, they’ve always wanted to show that as a country we cannot compete with the others. They wish for the world to be under control of those elves down in Muucar, don’t they?”

Jongin rolls his eyes, it seems that the Queen does too. “Muucar is nothing to do with this. We are facing a threat that is made by people who aren’t associated with the Zhang family – they left Muucar a long time ago.”

“Then what are they here for, Queen Dana?”

His mother cannot give any response. She probably doesn’t know why; she’s never seen or met with the cultists that hated the Kim family for their own disrespect of others. Jongin can—in the strangest of ways—understand why they’re angry. He knows that he would want revenge if others did the same to him.

“They’re here because we killed their family,” Jongin says, his voice echoing around the hall following the silence of everyone else.

His mother looks at him with detest and the others in the hall are ready to scream at him for sympathising with their cause. He knows he shouldn’t even be speaking but he also knows more than everyone else does.

“We _killed_ their family?” someone in the back asks. They’re dressed in religious robes and Jongin associates it with the priests in the city who oppose violence at all costs. “We’ve not attacked anyone, Prince Jongin. I believe this information to be incorrect.”

Jongin shakes his head. “Not us. My father, he killed people in the mountains fearing them as people who wanted to kill him. He killed may peaceful people and left them in a position where they had to return to us with violence. Ever since I was younger they’ve been building up their army to a point where they can attack us. They will, when they get the chance.”

“We need to fight back then, don’t we?” a man head to toe in armour—the head of the army in Neinrya—questions.

“If we can present them with an army that is far bigger than their own we may be able to fight back against them and show them that we are far stronger than they believe us to be. They will be more likely to turn away from us and leave us in peace, do you not think Queen Dana?”

“If they are threatening my son, they could not be in the slightest way _peaceful_ ,” the queen returns.

“Then show them that the Prince is more powerful than they believe,” one of the advisors suggests. He looks straight to Jongin and then bows his head at the sight of a confused prince. “Send him out to the battlefield and show the cultists that Prince Jongin isn’t as weak as they believe. It will make a stand to all the nations who believe we are the weakest in terms of military, Queen Dana.”

She laughs at him, and Jongin wants her to stop. He agrees, of he’s honest. He thinks that he should be fighting, too. “My son isn’t going to be facing any of those bandits, not even if you paid me.”

“I’ll fight,” Jongin says. He steps into the middle of the room so he can face everyone, the bravery in his soul beginning to show. “I’ll go out there and prove we are stronger than others believe we are.”

♕♕♕♕

Of all the people that Jongin is surprised to see on the field he’s standing on, the last one he expects to see is _you_.

He thinks you’re a mirage at first, since you’re so far away from him and he’s barely been eating out of fear for your safety and worry that he might not return from this so he could look for you and find you. He’s really convinced that the figure he can see in the distance isn’t actually you.

That’s the very reason why he looks forward and ignores any impulsive thoughts of you, opting to keep his stance to prepare for anything. He’s not sure if anyone is coming here today, he’s not sure if the cultist want to get him now, but what he does know is that he’s prepared. Anything that comes his way he feels he can defeat.

Except you’re stuck on his mind now.

He finds himself looking back over to where he found you before, but your face is lost in the crowd and he can’t pick you out anymore. He’s sure it was you there but he’s now more sure he was just imagining it. He wanted you to be here with him when he first put on _real_ armour and fought for his own cause, but you’re not. He’s going to have to do it alone.

He’s going to fight the men and women he can see on the horizon alone, and it brings him more fear than anything else in the world will. Actually, he changes his mind on that. Losing you makes him far more fearful. The past days without you have left him battling for sleep and in a mind-set that things weren’t going to be good for him.

The cultists finally begin to approach. Jongin’s on the front line and he’s having to drawn his sword upwards ready for someone to strike him. He’s trained before but he’s never trained for _this_. A battle of some kind. This isn’t even what was supposed to happen. He was supposed to stand here and make the cultists turn away because Neinrya had more power than they believed.

But that wasn’t going to happen. Jongin realises that pretty quickly, right when the sounds of men running and horses galloping hits his ears.

He tries clearing his mind but that doesn’t work. He keeps bringing his thoughts back to one thing. He needs to come out of this alive because he has so much unfinished business to take care of and he, more than ever, needs to find you.

 _You_. That’s what will get him through it. When he was walking here he heard stories of soldiers and the wives they had at home who would wait for them to return. He wanted that, really. He wanted to come home and be met with you at the door, congratulating him for finally achieving what he wanted. He’s not a coward and he’s fighting for his country. He’s not like his father. He’s going it all without your help.

Prince Jongin believes he is, anyway. Behind every good man is a good woman and he doesn’t realise that with each swing of his sword, there’s another behind him that stops the cultists from stabbing him in the back.

He thinks he’s doing well for the first part. He knows he’s brought a few men down, regardless of the support he has around him. He can see the oncoming troops and he knows that soon he’ll be unable to fight them, he just hopes that someone can help him before he does.

The help he wants comes when he least expects it, though. He’s pushed to the ground after a near miss with an arrow and though he feels like his chest it bruised beyond belief, he pushes himself over so he can see who pushed him down. He’s ready to fight the enemy that was going to attack him. He’s ready to have a dagger in the chest for all that his father’s done to the people in his country but instead he sees _you_.

No dagger, no sword, just wide eyes and gapped lips which shout at him to stay down.

♕♕♕♕

A cold sweat runs all over Jongin’s body when he jolts up in the bed he’s in. He’s not sure how he got here, he’s not even sure if _here_ is safe. He could have been kidnapped by enemies or this could be his time beginning with Zenahya. _Anything_ could have happened.  

He wracks his brain for any answers to the question he holds as he sits up in the bed, hair matted and body itching from the clothes he’s wearing. He squeezes his eyes shut as he attempts to make the memories of the battle field a little clearer to him, not that it’s working. He can only remember grass and bloodshed and people screaming and…

“Jongin?”

 _You_. He could remember you. The picture of you looking down at him after you pushed him down to avoid him having to be met with enemies was burnt into his memories without him asking for it to be. He vaguely remembers seeing someone hit you across the shoulder but after that he was gone.

His eyes immediately are wide open, looking straight at your figure which waits at the end of his bed. He tries to inspect you for any cuts or wounds but for the moment, he sees nothing. You’re wearing that same black dress you wore with him to go to his secret hiding place so long ago now. He still thinks you’re as beautiful, even if you look tired.

“Are you okay?” you ask, rushing to his side and crouching beside his bed. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, I really didn’t. I pushed you down so that you would avoid the spears of the cultists and you must have hit your head. I got you back here as soon as I could but… I couldn’t watch you die out there, Jongin. I wouldn’t let you die.”

Jongin missed all of your words. You’re alive, that’s what he cares about so much. Whilst you’re so hung up on the fact he didn’t die, he’s not processing the fact you weren’t killed a long time ago. “(y/n).”

“Do you need anything?” you ask him again, words rushed.

“I missed you,” he says quietly. He notices your hands on the bed, and he decides to pick them up. He holds your hands in his own, looking straight down to you. “I thought something happened to you. I missed you so much.”

You squeeze his hands gently as you bow your head. “I’m sorry that I left but… I had to try and do something.”

Your family were the ones that threatened him and Jongin knows already that you had tried to convince them that attacking him wasn’t the right thing to do. You’d always stood by that, after all. You told him you thought he had nothing to do with it. You told him he was innocent and he should have nothing to do with the actions his father made as a bad, a _very_ bad king.

“I followed them and… I tried to kill as many of them as I could. I didn’t think they’d have that many men. I thought they were still weak and living off the power of their sons like they always have done. I tried to tell them they’d lose any war they started with you but they didn’t listen. I should have stayed here, Jongin. I could have kept you from going and you wouldn’t have had to come to any harm and—”

Jongin stops you from speaking by kissing you again. He’s not sure where the temptation that was running through his veins has come from, but he knows he _had_ to kiss you then because he needed another way of telling you that it was okay. That he came to no harm. You always said you would stop him from being hurt and you did. He’s still here. He’s still alive.

“You’re not my housecarl anymore,” Jongin says. His words are whispered against your lips and they make your mind go completely blank. He presses another, much shorter kiss to your lips before he smiles. “You don’t have to do anything for me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I want you to be more than my housecarl,” Jongin tells you, “you’re not my mother’s gift to me. I want you to be my girlfriend. That’s what I want you to be.”

You don’t answer him straight away. The words in your mouth are jumbled and they only become worse when you look Jongin in the eyes. “Girlfriend?”

Jongin nods.

“Even as your girlfriend, I’ll still make sure you don’t get hurt.”

He really can’t help but laugh at your words. He finds it sweet inside, he wants to be the one who looks after you but judging by his display on the battlefield that won’t be happening very soon. What’s more important to him, is that you two are together. Nothing between you, nothing to make you want to leave or cause the two of you any more problems.

“Did we win?” Jongin asks.

“Did you really doubt your own men?” you ask Jongin. He finds the nerve to laugh and drops his head towards the ground, hair falling over his eyes. When he looks back up to you, he finds himself frozen as you push the hair from his eyes. “We won because we had you as a leader, Jongin. I told you, you’re more than your father ever was. Losing was never an option because you are the one who lead us all.”

Jongin only hums. He isn’t sure how he’s supposed to answer you because he still doesn’t see himself as having _that_ much of an impact on the people around him but he listens to your words anyway. Instead he focuses on what’s on his mind right now. “You’re my girlfriend then?”

“Your girlfriend who doesn’t want to kill you, and will protect you from anything, Prince Jongin.”

 


End file.
